By Gene Lawley
Figuratively speaking, I am writing this article in the sand, with my head down, bowed with a guilty memory of transgression of my past.
When I lift up my head, my eyes light up with the realization that forgiveness has been laid out for me by Jesus Christ, Lord of the universe.
He has removed them from me as far as the east is from the west, and they are forever moving away from me because there is no end to that direction—ever!
You, too, can lay claim to that effective erasing of your sinful past. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12).
But back to the sand writing, only this time let’s go to that account in John 8:3-11 where Jesus dealt masterfully with an attitude that is as current today as it was in His day, some 2,000 years ago:
“Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?’
“This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with Hisfinger, as though He did not hear.
“So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them, ‘He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.’
“And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
“When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, ‘Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.’”
There are a couple of points that need to be mentioned. Where was the man involved in the act of adultery?
It may appear that Jesus condoned her sin, at first glance, but while He did not condemn her, He told her to go and sin no more.
Also, it is apparent that she had not been refusing to admit her guilt.
This story is a very appropriate one for those considering the candidates in this coming presidential election. The question is obvious—who gets to cast the first stone?
Are current or relatively current, atrocities of more importance than digging out the past to find some hint, even of bad character which may be used to put a blot on the character of an opponent?
Try as we might, there will never be found any candidate who can walk on water, and some of the possibilities, even among the accusers, would not dare go near the water for fear of implication.
In the locker room, on the golf course, in the hunting lodge, in the gutter—all are places from where no person wants his or her words repeated.
Why? The answer is clear: “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
But when God makes that kind of accusation and condemnation, He always includes hand-in-hand with it, His solution for the problem.
It is Romans 3:24 “…being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”
Mentally robed in our self-righteous garments, we may be wondering how that dirty old publican, a tax collector, even, could possibly have won Jesus’ approval ahead of that “model of political correctness, civic prominence, even religious to a fault” person (I embellish them for current consideration). See Luke 18:10-14:
“Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men—extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’
“And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ ‘I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.’”
That old prayer of Jabez comes to mind and whether you are critical of the prayer or embrace it, as I do, it is uniquely tucked in the middle of a sea of “begots” that would not be missed if it were not there.
Yet it is there in the holy Scripture for our learning. That verse in 1 Chronicles 4:10 tells us this:
“And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, ‘Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!’ So God granted him what he requested.”
He asks God to bless and be with him, a very vital need, and two other requests that are particularly pertinent to anyone running for president:
- First, to help enlarge his territory (capture the votes.)
- And second, keep him from evil that he may not cause pain.
If one of the candidate’s wins the race by running the same horse in a repeat performance, making no changes in policies, and with the use of deception and perversion of justice (as much evidence seems to declare), her becoming the first woman president will be like a mouthful of gravel.
If the other person wins, he is fully committed to making a multitude of changes in policies and practices that have become the very fiber of our national lifestyle.
He will have an unbelievable warfare with those of the insider, globalist establishment whose desire and goal is a one-world government controlled by them.
It will not be pretty, for the fight is a deadly one, and the spin-out from the primary campaign reveals volumes of the desperation grasping those insiders who do not want changes to be made.
There is no likeness of morality or spirituality between the two situations, but when Jesus came preaching grace and justification by faith, the religious leaders panicked, for here came someone who was advocating massive change that would upset their establishment like nothing else ever could!
But as Robert Burns, the poet, wrote, “The best laid plans of mice and men sometimes go awry.”
Like when the railing, crippled ex-officer from the Viet Nam war in the story of “Forrest Gump” was asking “Where is God” as the storm raged, “about that time God showed up!”
When God shows up, things take on a new perspective.
According to Psalm 75:6-8, God exalts one and puts down another in respect to what He plans to accomplish.
The question looming in the thoughts of many believers is, will God actually allow the changes to be made and see America restored to moral, financial and economic integrity such as has never been in many, many decades?
Or, Is this promise of change of direction for the nation a test to see what kind of response the American population will make?
Is the trend of shutting God out of our schools and more and more, out of our public lives going to be the national desire, or will there be repentance so that there can be a “healing of the land?”
The last of that Psalm 75 passage says God’s cup of wrath is filled to the brim, ready to be poured out and “the wicked will drink down its dregs.”
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